Culdesac in the peak heat of Arizona
Might just be a coincidence, but with AZ at peak heat this weekend, we’re getting more press inquiries to talk about Culdesac Tempe. My first question is, are you visiting in person? As you’ll see, it’s not as bad as you think, and Culdesac has multiple tactics to reduce the impact (hint: they’re all things we used to do before cars). The big 3:
1. Not a drop of asphalt
The diurnal temperature range in the desert is large. Over 30 degrees on average in Tempe. The nights should be even cooler, but there’s a problem - we’ve paved paradise with asphalt. The resulting heat island effect absorbs heat during the day and emits it at night. But Culdesac Tempe has no asphalt. Instead, we have over 50% landscaped space.
2. Shade
Culdesac Tempe has 2-3 story buildings with narrow corridors between them. This means more shade than one story buildings and a sea of parking. The night is cooler than the daytime sunlight. And so is the daytime shade.
3. Heat-reflecting buildings
You’ve heard about buildings painting their roofs white to save electricity costs in the summer. Well we’ve painting almost the entire building white. This reflects heat.
The desert weather is amazing in the cooler months. But it’s also not as bad as you think in the summer. Everyone knows about the dry heat. 100 in Phoenix and 100 in Houston are very different.
It definitely gets hot. Very hot. But ask someone complaining about the heat to describe it. It is usually them getting in their car after grocery shopping while the car was cooking in the sun. That’s not 117 and dry. That’s 175 and humid. The problem there isn’t the desert. It’s the car. And the environment that meant you needed to drive it and park it while you shopped.
Sure, living in the desert summer requires adaptation. We pay more attention to what time of day activities are. Early mornings and late evenings are particularly good times of day. And we pay more attention to where there is the shade.
There are some more subtle things as well; have you seen how effective misters can be at cooling when the air is dry? But we can also build neighborhoods that are better off than asphalt-filled sprawl.
Humans have thrived in the desert since before air conditioning. It is even easier to thrive with modern conveniences, if we pick the right design. Come visit - you can feel the difference once you step inside the neighborhood.